Paulette Dube

Paulette Dubé’s fifth book of poetry takes an intimate look at the movements made by animals and humans during a cycle of four seasons. The poems are rich in their simplicity, and convey the depth and mystery of the animal-human connection. Reverse anthropomorphism occurs and the humans come away having (un)learned something about the citizens of the forest while deepening an understanding of themselves. The poems stress that as a species we are lost and lonely without our connection to the land, but that this connection reverberates with consequences.

“Dubé writes that she ‘…loves this place without being romantic, witty or urbane about it…’ and this promise is delivered through every poem. There is an unaffected, refreshing candor in these poems that is simply stunning, if not, at times, devastating.” — Thomas Trofimuk, author of Waiting For Columbus

"Her poems most strongly suggest a real humility when faced with the natural world, how it gets on with life, both survives and lets go, and a gratitude for how it can heal human trauma." — Jan Horne, Prairie Fire Magazine 

First Mountain is a interconnected suite of poems about a particular place — Jasper, Alberta. Paulette Dubé has lived there for more than a decade and her keen sense of the area and the healing powers of the natural world — seeking solitude, washing away stress, and celebrating the intimacy that is experienced by living in a pristine environment — shapes the emotional backbone of First Mountain. Dubé is at peak performance in her craft.

“This is a book showing tremendous awareness of language and an acute interest in character and situation.”
– Canadian Book Review Annual.

• Winner of the 1994 Milton Acorn Memorial People's Poetry Award.

Reviews

Almon, Bert. Canadian Book Review Annual (1993): 205.
English Studies: A Journal of English Language and Literature 75.3 (May 1994): 279.
van Luven, Lynne. “Voices from the past.” Edmonton Journal . July 5, 1992.